I've heard some commentary that Gen Z is the most conservative since the Silent Generation. If true, that bodes well.
Millennial generation reaches age 40 plus
- Thread starter Caduceus
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Same here. In my late 40s and my parents are also silents - both still living.
The term generation is not really that meaningful here! In biology/archeology they traditionally count 4 generations per century. So one generation is 25 years approx. However, with the current breeding pattern in the west, 35-40 years per generation is more appropriate, since we put of family formation longer and longer. These are more cultural, technological and societal changes I think.
The bigger, more important realization is that the correction is coming, whether it is the elite/evil/cycles/the world, etc it seems pretty clear. Only so many years or decades of particular type of living is "allowed."
Here's a helpful breakdown that I think clarifies the generation gaps a little more than the mainstream, broader definitions:
Boomers: Born post-war through about 1955 or so. Adolescents or teens during 60s cultural revolution. Embodies all the stereotypical Boomer qualities.
Generation Jones: Born from late 50s to early 60s. In elementary school or toddlers during 60s cultural revolution. Embodies some Boomer tendencies (blind trust of major institutions/mainstream media), less so others (Me-generation cultural narcissism, spend-it-all-before-I-die), but also not quite Gen X, lacking their pessimism and cynicism.
Gen X: Children mostly of Boomers, born in 70s. Bore full brunt of no-fault divorce. Cynical and distrusting, skeptical of institutions. Cultural rise in early 90s with alternative music scene.
Gen Y: Children mostly of Jones-ers, born in 80s. Hyper-nostalgic, heads buried in sand, consoomerism. Cultural rise in mid-2000s with first gen social media, Hipster subculture.
Millennials: Children of Jones-ers, some Boomers, some early Xers. Highly impressionable, molded totally by institutions, SJWs, Year Zero adherents. Cultural rise in early-mid 2010s, SJW movement.
We remember the 60s for the cultural and sexual revolution, but only the older part of the generation called Boomers experienced it. My parents, born about 1960, were way too young to have absorbed anything from the sexual revolution in the 60s; but their older siblings are extremely Boomer.
It's the same thing in the 90s. We think of the 90s as the rise of Gen X cynicism, Grunge, rap culture, and all that stuff. But kids from my generation, now in their mid-30s, didn't actually experience any of that because we were kids, only catching the tail end (the rise of rap, Nu-Metal.) We were kids when Grunge, a Gen X movement, was going on. 9/11 was our formative event. Millennials, probably the election of Barack Obama or the debut of the iPhone - or maybe the Martyrdom of St. Trayvon. But again, Gen Y's defining feature is probably a childhood and/or adolescence bifurcated between a more "traditional", analogue experience, and the rise of ubiquitous consumer PC tech.
The transition years (1960-1965, 1990-1995) are interesting because people born in this period tend to exhibit a blend of qualities between the generations that can vary quite widely. I'm majority Gen Y (born 1988), but do have some Millennial qualities. My brothers, born between 90-95, have a more even blend. People I know born 1995-2000, though, are definitively in the Millennial camp. I don't know Gen Z well enough to comment much on them, aside from older Zoomers seeming quite similar to Millennials, and younger ones either being hyper-Millennial or hyper-based reactionary types.
In the mid 2010s I was part of a house church group where the majority of my peers were about five years or more younger than me, putting them firmly in the Millennial contingent. At the time I was unaware of all this generational theory stuff, but I was struck by how jarringly different their outlook and experiences were compared to my own and couldn't really relate much to them. Maybe generational theory seems like hair-splitting on the surface but it actually helps us understand the cultural evolution (or more aptly, de-volution) and how we relate to each other across generations a little better.
I recently realized that a couple of YouTube channels I enjoy, LGR (which covers retro computing) and Doug DeMuro (cars, with a pronounced interest in quirky vehicles and "new retro" cars of the 80s and 90s) are both almost exactly the same age as me and exhibit rather pronounced Gen Y tendencies.
Boomers: Born post-war through about 1955 or so. Adolescents or teens during 60s cultural revolution. Embodies all the stereotypical Boomer qualities.
Generation Jones: Born from late 50s to early 60s. In elementary school or toddlers during 60s cultural revolution. Embodies some Boomer tendencies (blind trust of major institutions/mainstream media), less so others (Me-generation cultural narcissism, spend-it-all-before-I-die), but also not quite Gen X, lacking their pessimism and cynicism.
Gen X: Children mostly of Boomers, born in 70s. Bore full brunt of no-fault divorce. Cynical and distrusting, skeptical of institutions. Cultural rise in early 90s with alternative music scene.
Gen Y: Children mostly of Jones-ers, born in 80s. Hyper-nostalgic, heads buried in sand, consoomerism. Cultural rise in mid-2000s with first gen social media, Hipster subculture.
Millennials: Children of Jones-ers, some Boomers, some early Xers. Highly impressionable, molded totally by institutions, SJWs, Year Zero adherents. Cultural rise in early-mid 2010s, SJW movement.
We remember the 60s for the cultural and sexual revolution, but only the older part of the generation called Boomers experienced it. My parents, born about 1960, were way too young to have absorbed anything from the sexual revolution in the 60s; but their older siblings are extremely Boomer.
It's the same thing in the 90s. We think of the 90s as the rise of Gen X cynicism, Grunge, rap culture, and all that stuff. But kids from my generation, now in their mid-30s, didn't actually experience any of that because we were kids, only catching the tail end (the rise of rap, Nu-Metal.) We were kids when Grunge, a Gen X movement, was going on. 9/11 was our formative event. Millennials, probably the election of Barack Obama or the debut of the iPhone - or maybe the Martyrdom of St. Trayvon. But again, Gen Y's defining feature is probably a childhood and/or adolescence bifurcated between a more "traditional", analogue experience, and the rise of ubiquitous consumer PC tech.
The transition years (1960-1965, 1990-1995) are interesting because people born in this period tend to exhibit a blend of qualities between the generations that can vary quite widely. I'm majority Gen Y (born 1988), but do have some Millennial qualities. My brothers, born between 90-95, have a more even blend. People I know born 1995-2000, though, are definitively in the Millennial camp. I don't know Gen Z well enough to comment much on them, aside from older Zoomers seeming quite similar to Millennials, and younger ones either being hyper-Millennial or hyper-based reactionary types.
In the mid 2010s I was part of a house church group where the majority of my peers were about five years or more younger than me, putting them firmly in the Millennial contingent. At the time I was unaware of all this generational theory stuff, but I was struck by how jarringly different their outlook and experiences were compared to my own and couldn't really relate much to them. Maybe generational theory seems like hair-splitting on the surface but it actually helps us understand the cultural evolution (or more aptly, de-volution) and how we relate to each other across generations a little better.
I recently realized that a couple of YouTube channels I enjoy, LGR (which covers retro computing) and Doug DeMuro (cars, with a pronounced interest in quirky vehicles and "new retro" cars of the 80s and 90s) are both almost exactly the same age as me and exhibit rather pronounced Gen Y tendencies.
Interesting. Your breakdown is by decade, which I think is a good approach, because each decade seems to have a significantly different cultural vibe, and because the culture shift is surprisingly distinct right at the turn of each decade. I remember as a young kid in the early 70s, I was already sharply aware of 70s music and 60s music, and they sounded completely different to me. They still do. Music from 68-69 is completely different from music from 70-71, and I already thought so as a 9 year old in 1973.
Secondly, you make a distinction between the experience of young kids growing up in a given decade, vs the older youth coming of age. As in your example, kids in the 90s had a different experience from people who were late teens in 1990 and came of age in that decade.
I suspect this is true all the way through. I was born the last year of the baby boom. The birth rate dropped off sharply for kids born the first and second year after I was born. I don't identify with post WW2 born boomers at all. I would say my cohort's experience was not only unique for the decade we were kids, or the decade we came of age, but also in every decade since. My experience of the 2010s was much different than a Gen Xer's experience of that decade.
On the one hand, you could take this line of thought and use it to throw out the whole concept of Generation cohorts. There are so many variables that generalities can't really be made.
However, I do think there are patterns, and people from my own age cohort are more likely to share a lot of my experiences than other people as little as five years difference in age from me.
This isn't so much blame but it is a reality. Boomers benefited from ample opportunity in their 20s-30s yet when charged with significant responsibility in their 50s-60s this country declined rapidly. My wife and I were just talking the other day about how different this country was just back in 2014-15 prior to Trump running. Now look at it.
I do believe boomers have a great work ethic and are generally intelligent. But they are equally oblivious to the situation they helped create and the environment as it is.
What is not uncommon is to see conservative and religious boomers, that we should have a fair amount in common with, who got the jabs and pushed that crap on others, who thought stripping of freedom/liberty made sense because it protected their own fears (like school masks), who wanted war with Ukraine to teach Putin a lesson!, just as a few examples from the last couple years.
I'm actually surprised as a millennial that in the last 24 months or so I have found I have very little in common with my boomer parents and their friends. Generally as you get older and more conservative and family oriented, I thought we'd have a lot in common. But I can't even relate to them.
Fox News is still their bible. They are still caught up in the Cold War era propaganda. They want war to protect 'Merica while having little concern about the effects of those wars domestically and globally (and have no answer when asked how Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria/Yemen worked out for us). They still believe their government and can't see past the right v left political charade. They rushed to get jabbed because Fauci and the medical establishment (and Ivy league grads!!) would never lie to them. The gay and snowflake agenda has taken over schools and universities directly under their watch. The income v expense ratio of the average adult has been flipped on its head due to corruption, monopolies, the FED, policy and immigration. They can't compute every dollar we earn now doesn't go nearly as far is it did in the 70's and 80's. And relative income vs expenses has dropped dramatically, pricing out stability and the development of the family unit.
These are just a few topics I've discussed with boomers recently. And what is crazy is they literally are oblivious to this. They think it's 1975 still. Watch Fox, go to a good school, just ignore the gays, get a god job, buy a house and have a family.
What is alarming to me is when they were in their 30's, the majority of their friends and colleagues had a stay at home wife, multiple children, a house and savings/investments. Now I look around in my 30's and maybe 10% of the people I went to school with are married and have a house. And a number of them need assistance from their parents just to get the house. Most, the large majority are single, renting, dead end careers, no savings, no assets, while still holding 4 year college degrees as they were told!
And the issue with millennials is on the micro level we can certainly pin blame on the individual. Many of us have made mistakes. But on a macro level this generation appears worse off than any generation since the founding of this nation. You can blame individual students for doing poorly on a test or not doing homework. But when 90% of the class graduates and doesn't have success, you look squarely at the teacher.
And the boomers were the teachers.
Having said all that, I'm not one for excuses. Deal with the cards you're dealt and get after it. There's still amply opportunity. You need to be creative, strong willed and now more than ever access to information to learn new skills and leverage tech is easier than ever before.
However, so much damage has been done by the generation in charge I see this country tumbling downhill for decades to come. The corruption, the greed, the monopolies, the lobbyists and one party establishment system in DC, state sponsored MSM, ruined universities, skyrocketing healthcare, taxes, general expenses and COL, all compounded by moving away from religion and the family unit as a society and mass immigration which negates opportunity for Americans and the outlook is bleak. You can say the same about much of Europe too.
I do believe boomers have a great work ethic and are generally intelligent. But they are equally oblivious to the situation they helped create and the environment as it is.
What is not uncommon is to see conservative and religious boomers, that we should have a fair amount in common with, who got the jabs and pushed that crap on others, who thought stripping of freedom/liberty made sense because it protected their own fears (like school masks), who wanted war with Ukraine to teach Putin a lesson!, just as a few examples from the last couple years.
I'm actually surprised as a millennial that in the last 24 months or so I have found I have very little in common with my boomer parents and their friends. Generally as you get older and more conservative and family oriented, I thought we'd have a lot in common. But I can't even relate to them.
Fox News is still their bible. They are still caught up in the Cold War era propaganda. They want war to protect 'Merica while having little concern about the effects of those wars domestically and globally (and have no answer when asked how Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria/Yemen worked out for us). They still believe their government and can't see past the right v left political charade. They rushed to get jabbed because Fauci and the medical establishment (and Ivy league grads!!) would never lie to them. The gay and snowflake agenda has taken over schools and universities directly under their watch. The income v expense ratio of the average adult has been flipped on its head due to corruption, monopolies, the FED, policy and immigration. They can't compute every dollar we earn now doesn't go nearly as far is it did in the 70's and 80's. And relative income vs expenses has dropped dramatically, pricing out stability and the development of the family unit.
These are just a few topics I've discussed with boomers recently. And what is crazy is they literally are oblivious to this. They think it's 1975 still. Watch Fox, go to a good school, just ignore the gays, get a god job, buy a house and have a family.
What is alarming to me is when they were in their 30's, the majority of their friends and colleagues had a stay at home wife, multiple children, a house and savings/investments. Now I look around in my 30's and maybe 10% of the people I went to school with are married and have a house. And a number of them need assistance from their parents just to get the house. Most, the large majority are single, renting, dead end careers, no savings, no assets, while still holding 4 year college degrees as they were told!
And the issue with millennials is on the micro level we can certainly pin blame on the individual. Many of us have made mistakes. But on a macro level this generation appears worse off than any generation since the founding of this nation. You can blame individual students for doing poorly on a test or not doing homework. But when 90% of the class graduates and doesn't have success, you look squarely at the teacher.
And the boomers were the teachers.
Having said all that, I'm not one for excuses. Deal with the cards you're dealt and get after it. There's still amply opportunity. You need to be creative, strong willed and now more than ever access to information to learn new skills and leverage tech is easier than ever before.
However, so much damage has been done by the generation in charge I see this country tumbling downhill for decades to come. The corruption, the greed, the monopolies, the lobbyists and one party establishment system in DC, state sponsored MSM, ruined universities, skyrocketing healthcare, taxes, general expenses and COL, all compounded by moving away from religion and the family unit as a society and mass immigration which negates opportunity for Americans and the outlook is bleak. You can say the same about much of Europe too.
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Just from my observing my parents I'd say boomers are hardworking and good with their money; they tend to place too much trust in institutions and main stream media narratives. If they don't have a religious/biblical worldview they can't see what's happening in the world with the right perspective. Not to blame them for the laziness and failures of their offspring but if they don't have that perspective they can't instill the values that were in the air when they grew up in the 50's and 60's. Many secular conservative boomers took for granted their upbringing, the cultural norms of their day, and the benefits of holdover Christian heritage in society. Their kids had too much freedom to find themselves, little moral constraints were put on their behavior if they didn't have a religious background; because there was too much prosperity they were indulged too much, all while cultural influences continued to decay; many in succeeding generations wasted their young adulthood in ways which would have been unthinkable for the generation born in the 1950's.
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The 90s rocked and the internet changed everything.
One thing I'll say about the internet is that it made pornography a more insidious evil than it ever was before.
I'm going to have to give a bit of a mea culpa here...
I've sparred with many of you in regards to the generational stuff. I think perhaps being first generation of strict immigrant parents it just doesn't compute with me. My father and uncles are of "boomer" age but absolutely not anything like what boomers are described as. Also myself and my friends, who are interestingly mostly first generation even though most are not of my culture, also do not behave the way you guys are describing millennials. I did recently have some run ins with some American boomers, the kind all of you talk about, and it did help me better understand why many of you loathe them so much. I just get caught up on the idea of blaming someone else for your fate, using that as an excuse.
That and hell all the young kids I know are gone, they don't even remember what life was like back when things were real and they weren't internet social justice stupid, or for that matter how much better things were before 9/11.
I've sparred with many of you in regards to the generational stuff. I think perhaps being first generation of strict immigrant parents it just doesn't compute with me. My father and uncles are of "boomer" age but absolutely not anything like what boomers are described as. Also myself and my friends, who are interestingly mostly first generation even though most are not of my culture, also do not behave the way you guys are describing millennials. I did recently have some run ins with some American boomers, the kind all of you talk about, and it did help me better understand why many of you loathe them so much. I just get caught up on the idea of blaming someone else for your fate, using that as an excuse.
That and hell all the young kids I know are gone, they don't even remember what life was like back when things were real and they weren't internet social justice stupid, or for that matter how much better things were before 9/11.
So first off, yeah people can go way too far in generational hatred and blame. It doesn't do anything to solve anyone's problems and hating a generation doesn't cause that generation to repent.
With you in particular, and broadly to immigrants from the East, I don't think this generational thing applies. Here in America, every single generation since before the silent generation, born prior to the end of World War 2, has had a wildly different culture from the generations before and after. Different music, different clothing, different slang, different philosophies, different foundational movies, even different religious and spiritual views.
Me, I think this is a unique attack against the American people by certain merchant tribes, greatly assisted by our own greed and material success for the past several generations. They're exploiting our consumerist tendencies because by recreating a culture every couple of years, you can sell a lot more “culture,” (and it also divides us) whereas if you look at traditional cultures in the East, at least from my perspective, it looks like the culture stays more or less the same from generation to generation.
Agree with all that, at the very root beyond the specifics of it I think they want to just take our strength and unity as Americans from us. They want us all at each other throats, distracted by race, gender, politics and material things.
Also applies to our Christianity
Another reason why I don't like the generation monikers, it's just more division.
I'm honestly worrying about Gen α, they're the first generation born entirely in the 21st Century and will grow up in a world completely different from the one even younger Millennials recognized. A different world where traditional gender roles are a completely alien concept and science constitutes men dressing up and identifying as women. A world where being American is no longer something to be proud of, because of the track record of 20 years of failure in Iraq and Afghanistan. They're also the first generation that will grow up entirely immersed in social media and the Internet. The damage to IQ and attention span to the younger Zoomers due to TikTok is already evident; imagine how the Gen Alpha kids will act if this is their introduction to their adolescent years. At least Gen X and Millennials could enjoy the nostalgia of the innocent time of the early Internet and YouTube, the time before social media became a political battlefield.
This was more in the 2000's when dial-up was being replaced with broadband and the "tube" streaming websites were at their infancy, and porn addicts no longer have to sacrifice their dignity having to physically buy magazines or VHS tapes.
The Baby Boomers grew up in a world where our nation was on the top, just emerging as a victor of two World Wars, and experiencing a new wave of prosperity in direct contrast to the Great Depression. On the other hand, many immigrants coming from places like Eastern Europe and China were fleeing the hardship of Communism and thus would have a very different outlook on life, poverty and success.
The rise of the American suburbia post-WW2 started exposing the rootlessness of US society. You give the populace the comforts of the First World and condition their minds towards consumerism and capitalism, and in this way they're willing to become compliant to whatever culture gets marketed at them. The Hippies of the 60s and 70s, the punk goths of the 80s, the emo sub-culture of the 90s and 00s, and now the TikTok Idiocracy of the 2020s.
Boomers are very hard working, mentally healthy & are really holding society togethor.
When the boomers pass away & retire the west will inevitebly collapse.
Whilst I admire boomers for their hard work they are very blind about the "enemy at the gates" which is modern western society. I'd like to call boomers conservative normies. They have got great values & ethics but are oblivious about whats going on.
My boomer parents the other day were talking about how the younger men of this generation are shy & generally inneffective with girls & women. I countered by mentioning to them how apps like instagram have made woman look at men at mere disposable items, thst woman nowadays (due to social conditioning) are more promiscious than ever before & that a man attempting to traditionally court a woman in public can even get prosecuted in certain Western European countries. But they simply would not have any of it.
When the boomers pass away & retire the west will inevitebly collapse.
Whilst I admire boomers for their hard work they are very blind about the "enemy at the gates" which is modern western society. I'd like to call boomers conservative normies. They have got great values & ethics but are oblivious about whats going on.
My boomer parents the other day were talking about how the younger men of this generation are shy & generally inneffective with girls & women. I countered by mentioning to them how apps like instagram have made woman look at men at mere disposable items, thst woman nowadays (due to social conditioning) are more promiscious than ever before & that a man attempting to traditionally court a woman in public can even get prosecuted in certain Western European countries. But they simply would not have any of it.
The echo-boomers are a pretty well functioning lot. I'm thinking of those born between say 1965-1975 especially. (for some reason the -72 "golden vintage" offspring are unusually gifted) They have some of the same values and aspirations as their boomer parents, and most have children also. I think they can keep the wheels churning for some time. Although a collapse would be preferable at this point I guess.
Thank you. I, too, remember that Millennials used to be defined in a different way.
The first time I heard it set, it was supposed to mean the people turning 18 in 2000. I was born in 1981 and got along with older kids but those that were more than 2 years younger seemed like they were from another planet. Constantly offended by everything my friends and I said and did.
It was around Grade 5-6 that we started to get younger teachers in our schools who would forbid any criticism of anything because "that's a put down". It was also the start of the participation trophy era.
So in addition to not being able to imagine a life without the internet and a cell phone, the true Millennials also did not know a life of merit (at least in public).
Those were always the defining points of that Gen for me.
The late 1970s to the early 1980s is the last generational divide that is remarkable in its difference. I think a lot of it has to do with your birth order or if you have older siblings, etc.